I want to share a bit about a book I just finished: Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think about Race and Identity, by Michele Norris, the creator of The Race Card Project. I first read about this book in The New York Times, and as soon as I read the story, I knew I…… Continue reading Learning from The Race Card Project
Category: Politics
Worship & the Monduli Market
Inside Monduli Lutheran Church We had another great day today! We started our day with a worship at 8:30. There was lots of singing beforehand, as people drifted in, and the service lasted a little over 2 1/2 hours. But I can honestly say that it went by very quickly. Everyone wears their Sunday best…… Continue reading Worship & the Monduli Market
The Difficulty of Expressing Nuanced Opinions
Photo by Haley Black on Pexels.com When I came home for lunch yesterday, John had the news on, and I watched a bit of a demonstration on the National Mall in support of Israel in the war against Hamas. As I was listening to the reporter describe the scene, he was mentioning the different people…… Continue reading The Difficulty of Expressing Nuanced Opinions
Weaving the Country Together
Families are on the move–but not for the reasons you might think. People have always moved, of course, and there are many reasons we still do so today: we move to be closer to family, we move for jobs, we move for climate or health reasons, we move for preferences in activities and amenities. However,…… Continue reading Weaving the Country Together
Ordinary People at Auschwitz
Yesterday we visited Auschwitz-Birkenau. As many of you know, Auschwitz was the largest of the Nazi concentration camps and extermination centers. Over 1.1 million men, women and children were murdered there. Auschwitz proper was actually a whole network of sub-camps, forty in all, that exploited the prisoners as slave labor. [The website, by the way,…… Continue reading Ordinary People at Auschwitz
Truth & Healing, and Indian Boarding Schools
Those in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America might be aware that the Church has just launched a new movement, the “Truth and Healing Movement,” which intends to support the work of the ELCA to explore the “true history and current realities of Indigenous people.” Find more about it here: https://elca.org/Our-Work/Congregations-and-Synods/Ethnic-Specific-and-Multicultural-Ministries/Indigenous-Ministries-and-Tribal-Relations/Truth-and-Healing-Movement Included in this movement…… Continue reading Truth & Healing, and Indian Boarding Schools
The 8 Pillars of Joy
I have written about The Book of Joy before, because I love it so much. Really, if you haven’t read it, I so strongly recommend it–for anyone, not just if you are religious. It is a book for people who love themselves, the world, and other people–and want to live more fully into a disposition…… Continue reading The 8 Pillars of Joy
Learning from Burundi’s Civil War
A year or so ago I started a “Reading Around the World” program, which I had read about online. It is basically just what it sounds like: you read a book from each country in the world, A to Z. The woman whose blog I read did it in a year; it is definitely going…… Continue reading Learning from Burundi’s Civil War
Remembering Yesterday, for the sake of Today and Tomorrow
While I was in Oklahoma last weekend, I visited two very significant museums: the museum and memorial commemorating the Oklahoma City Bombing of April 19th, 1995; and the Greenwood Rising museum and Reconciliation Park in Tulsa, which commemorate the Tulsa massacre of the Black community [often known as “Black Wall Street”] in the Greenwood neighborhood…… Continue reading Remembering Yesterday, for the sake of Today and Tomorrow
The Sum of Us
“Why can’t we have nice things?” This question begins The Sum of Us, by Heather McGhee, and each subsequent chapter provides a piece of the answer. The “nice things” that those of us who live in the United States can’t have, are adequately funded schools, wages that keep people out of poverty, and a reliable…… Continue reading The Sum of Us
Happy Lutheran 